1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to desalination equipment, and more particularly to pressure exchange devices.
2. Background
A pressure exchange device may recover potential energy that is stored in a compressed fluid. A typical application for a pressure exchange device is in a desalination system. For example, seawater may be compressed to a high pressure, and reverse osmosis may be used to extract fresh water from the compressed seawater resulting in a high pressure brine byproduct. If the high pressure brine is discarded then the energy used to compress that volume of concentrate is also wasted. A pressure exchange device may use the high pressure brine to compress seawater for further fresh water extraction. Unfortunately, a pressure exchange device generates substantial noise when the brine and seawater undergo sudden changes in pressure during the pressure exchange. The noise is characteristic of vibration and stress that can degrade the extraction equipment including the pressure exchanger, pipes, manifolds, pumps, turbines, filters, and membranes.